1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of telephony. More particularly, the invention relates to facsimile (fax) mail systems. In still greater particularity, the invention relates to a user interface for a fax mail system. By way of further characterization, but not by way of limitation thereto, the invention relates to prompting a user with instructions to access various options in a fax mail system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Facsimile (fax) communications have become increasingly popular in recent years. The increased use of fax machines and the resultant proliferation of fax transmissions has even gained the attention of the United States Congress in trying to limit "junk" fax documents. While, initially, fax machines were cumbersome and expensive, they are now getting more compact and portable. Doing business by fax has become increasingly commonplace. Sales people can fax orders and a warehouse can, in return, fax invoices. In short, what used to take days to accomplish through the U.S. Mail can now be accomplished in a matter of minutes by utilizing fax machines.
The increasing use of fax machines and the proliferation of fax documents has led some people to try to manage their fax documents. Thus, some method for retaining the fax mail would be useful. Of course, it is possible to keep the hard copies of the faxes in a stack and read them when it is convenient as is done with regular mail. However, in a mobile society and, in particular, in a highly mobile business environment, transporting a large number of hard copy faxes while traveling can be burdensome and the risk of losing the faxes is increased. It would be useful if such faxes could be stored electronically.
In addition to the problems with storing fax transmissions, it is desirable in many cases to allow remote printing of fax documents where and when desired. That is, a fax is generally sent to a specific fax machine as identified by the fax telephone number. However, it may be that the intended recipient is at a different location (e.g. for a meeting or traveling out of state). In such a situation the fax received at a first location would have to be re-faxed to the second location. This is inconvenient and may result in poor quality of the re-faxed document. Thus, for individuals who are not at the same location one hundred percent (100%) of the time, it would be useful to have a system which would allow the printing of the fax transmission at a location other than the primary fax location telephone number to which the original fax was sent.
The use of portable fax machines has helped in sending or receiving fax transmissions from remote or unforeseen locations. However, in the past, these portable fax machines have only been useful to send a fax. To receive fax transmissions the recipient generally must stay at one location long enough to receive the transmission and the timing must be coordinated with the sender. For example, a traveling business person may be waiting for a fax and wish to receive it at an airport during an air travel layover. If that person has a portable fax machine and can coordinate with the sender to send the fax transmission while the business person is on the telephone, this may prove satisfactory. However, if for some reason, the sender cannot send the transmission (the sending fax machine may be in use) at that exact moment, the recipient must wait on the line incurring additional cost (if a long distance call) and wasting time. If the fax could be sent to one telephone number (fax mailbox) and retrieved at will by the recipient, then time and money would be saved. The business person could then retrieve the fax transmission at a time and place which is convenient. For example, the business person could get the fax transmission from the public phone at the airport during the layover at his or her convenience or possibly this traveler may wish to retrieve the fax once he or she checks into a hotel room.
Another problem encountered with increased use of fax machines is confidentiality. Specifically, unless a recipient knows exactly when a fax transmission will be received, he or she will not be waiting to receive it. Thus, for some period of time that faxed document is available for anyone to pick up and read. If the recipient had more control over the time and place of receipt, confidentiality could be maintained.
In order to overcome the above limitations, fax mail systems have recently been offered which allow the recipient to receive the fax transmissions at a preselected telephone number (electronic fax mailbox) and retrieve them at will from a different location. One limitation of existing fax mail systems has been that many of them are complicated to operate and thus many helpful options are not utilized. That is, the recipient interacts with the fax mail system through a touchtone phone and, if the interaction is difficult, many fax mail subscribers will not be able to interact effectively. Users encountering difficulty will either not subscribe to the system initially or, if they do subscribe, they will later discontinue the service. Thus, it is critical that a fax mail system be easy to understand and use in order that a fax recipient utilize all of the options available. While being easy to use, the system must also be sophisticated to the extent that the fax recipient can obtain all of the necessary fax mail information and utilize available customization options to make the system useful.